Consumer Good vs Mineral Ratio

[Tavior]

I watch a bit of the last week Utopia and something is bothering me ever since then.

I understand that there are modifier that affect how much one citizen consume a consumer good (25% due to castle system, more good consumed for higher standard of living, and other).

My problem is why did Paradox have to separate Consumer Goods and how much one consumer good equal to mineral.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/119136373?t=21m03s
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/119136373?t=21m03s
Here you can tell that because of the -10% modifier mineral cost end up being roughly .45 per monthly from total of .5 mineral used.

Why don't make it simpler and change amount consumed per month to baseline ".5 consumer good" at full citizen and no modifier positive or negative.

That way you can see 10% and know that is a .05 instead of thinking of it as .10 from 1 consumer good per month.

Then halve every other number that depends on consumer goods if there were any before.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Design reasons, I suppose.

As a modder I'd also guess that this makes it easier to allow the use of other (or additional) resources in the future. For example, maybe one day we want a Consumer Good to be 1F, 1M, 2E and 0.05 $RANDOM_PLANETARY_LUXURY_RESOURCE_NAME$.

All hail the SciFi space toasters!

 

[Tavior]

Design reasons, I suppose.

As a modder I'd also guess that this makes it easier to allow the use of other (or additional) resources in the future. For example, maybe one day we want a Consumer Good to be 1F, 1M, 2E and 0.05 $RANDOM_PLANETARY_LUXURY_RESOURCE_NAME$.

Without access to Utopia it is hard for me to determine if there is any good reason to differential mineral used vs consumer good.

But I can tell you it is already confusing having to remember (1 * .xx) /2 = actual mineral used. Compared to .5 * .xx = actual mineral used.

If people wanted it at baseline 1 they can use addon for that.

 

[RedPearlA]

1 consumer good = .5 minerals at the start of the game but that can change.

The main advantage of an Authoritarian empire is in mineral production. Slaves get a bonus to it *and* have reduced consumer goods use, and Caste System ensures optimal pop placement on tiles. The effects are fairly small to begin with (any large advantage in the first years of game would not be good) but once you stack some slave bonuses and Consumer Goods cost starts increasing due to the size of your empire, it's a different story. The price you pay is always having to deal with some unrest, but that's just the cost of doing business, and the amounts aren't nearly as bad as a fully enslaved planet under Xenophobes.

 

[Tavior]

1 consumer good = .5 minerals at the start of the game but that can change.

You misunderstood what I am saying.

It make more sense to have at game start consumer good being .5 at game start without any modifier. Which also equal to .5 mineral used.

If you get 25% discount on consumer good 1. Then you have to realize that it break down to 1 * .75 / 2 = .375 mineral used.

If you start with .5 instead. You do .5 * .75 = .375 mineral used.

The math all end up being the same in the end.

It just feels confusing to take a percent and divide it by 2, which makes the percent feel weaker despite having the same effect in the end, and my way make it clearer.

 

[RedPearlA]

It make more sense to have at game start consumer good being .5 at game start without any modifier. Which also equal to .5 mineral used.

That would also be confusing. But they could just show both the consumer good and what the current mineral cost per pop is under this living standard.

 

[Me_]

That would also be confusing. But they could just show both the consumer good and what the current mineral cost per pop is under this living standard.

It certainly couldn't be more confusing than what was shown in the stream. If 1 consumer good = 1 mineral with base demand of 0.5, then all you need to dois mentally replace "consumer good" with "mineral" and you're good to go. If 1 consumer good = 0.5 mineral with base demand of 1, thene there is no good mental shortcut to use.

 

[Tavior]

It certainly couldn't be more confusing than what was shown in the stream. If 1 consumer good = 1 mineral with base demand of 0.5, then all you need to dois mentally replace "consumer good" with "mineral" and you're good to go. If 1 consumer good = 0.5 mineral with base demand of 1, thene there is no good mental shortcut to use.

That is certainly an alternative way of doing it!